Private Tutoring
by Fox McCloude
Summary: Ash Ketchum isn't the smartest brick in the Kanto Pokémon Academy, and after flunking one too many classes, he's at risk of losing his spot in the Pokéathlon. Fortunately, he has a good friend willing to help him prevent that from happening. Written for the Day 2 of the PokéShipping Week 2019, theme: "High School AU".


**Private Tutoring**

**By Fox McCloude.**

**Disclaimer: **Pokémon and all related characters belong to Satoshi Tajiri, Nintendo and GAMEFREAK. All rights reserved.

* * *

_**Kanto Pokémon Academy, in an alternate Earth…**_

Misty Waterflower was many things. She was a prominent student in her class, while not the first, she'd always be among the top five at least. She was also a great athlete, being nominated to be the captain of her school's swimming team, although she declined the position. She had some prestige, but she wasn't arrogant or a showoff because of that. In fact, she'd always try to get along with everyone in her class.

Except, of all people, _him. _Or at least, it'd been that way when they first met.

"Hmm… hmm… ah, crud, I don't get any of this!"

"Shhhh! Be quiet, Ash. Remember we're in the library."

"Whoops… sorry."

The redhead sighed as he heard the voices, and placed the book she was reading back into the shelf. When she reached the source, just as she guessed, he was there: at one of the work tables, notebook and pencil in front of him, and a thick book wide open by his side. His right hand doodled over the notebook, while the left one tapped his forehead constantly.

"Aw, sheesh… why do I have to study this stuff? What good is this gonna make if I want to be a pro Pokéathlete?"

Misty shook her head. Some people wouldn't get why they should learn things such as equations, or the history of their region, and Ash Ketchum from the Pallet District was one of them. He'd been that way since they met at the start of that year.

When it came to Physical Ed, and practical subjects which involved interacting directly with Pokémon, he'd always be among the first. In fact, in the Battle Strategy class she was the only one who could match up to and even beat her, and she was number one in overall ranking, which proved he had skill and always gave his best. But in classes involving math, history or anything that had little to nothing to do with Pokémon and their training, he didn't have the same motivation.

Both of them had a lot in common, which probably factored in them getting off with the wrong foot. Just like her, Ash was competitive and very confident in himself, which rubbed her the wrong way when he beat her in a battle. The two would spend a lot picking on each other, and she found a bit of a guilty pleasure whenever she saw him fail the exams, to knock him down a peg or two.

However, under that facet of a competitive kid and book dumb student, there was a lot more. One time, she saw him stand up to a third-year who tried to bully some recently-transferred students, and although he got in trouble for starting a fight in school grounds, her opinion of him began to change. She later found Ash didn't tolerate bullies who picked on the weaker, as he himself was a victim when in elementary school. She found that a rather admirable… and charming, trait.

The two had become friends since then, so by that time, she knew he wouldn't mind if she sat at the same table as him while he studied.

Thus, he decided to approach him.

"Too busy?" she asked, getting the boy's attention and making him look at her.

"No, not at all," he said before focusing (or at least _trying _to focus) back on the book he was reading.

"Trouble with classes?" Misty asked again, although she already knew his answer.

"Not really." He shrugged. "I just don't get how I'm supposed to do this. The results don't match."

"Let me see," Misty requested, and Ash handed her over the notebook. The girl checked the problem line by line, and once she found the error, she smiled and pointed it. "Aha. You forgot a minus sign right here. Correct that and try again."

Ash grabbed the notebook back, and adding the aforementioned sign, he solved the problem once more, without interruptions. Once he was done, he facepalmed, as if he couldn't believe it was so simple and he couldn't spot such a stupid mistake.

"Geez, why can't I never get these right?"

"Isn't it because you're a bit impatient?" Misty suggested. "If you rush things too much, you're more likely to make a mistake. Sometimes you need to stop and use your head."

"Yeah, that's easier said than done, especially when time's running out," he pointed, closing the math book and grabbing another from the stack on the other side. It was titled _"History of Kanto, Volume II"._

"That's quite a lot to study, isn't it?" Misty asked. "Must be pretty heavy for you, having to read all those books at once."

"I have no choice. After the last round of exams, I've got four failed classes, so I won't be able to stay on the team for the yearly Pokéathlon unless I pass the extraordinary."

"That's very important to you, isn't it?"

Ash stared at her, as if offended by the remark. Then again, Misty knew saying that was pretty much like saying the sky was blue or water was wet. At the end of the term, the academy would take part in the yearly Pokéathlon, a very important regional competition, and Ash was one of the most important members if they wanted any hopes of winning.

Of course, with his less than stellar grades, he was at risk of losing his spot on the team, and he couldn't allow that in any way. If he didn't take part, he'd miss his chance to attract talent seekers for when he graduated or decided to go pro.

"Have you tried to get some help?" Misty asked. "It's not easy to study all that on your own, with nobody to clear your doubts. Not to mention how boring it must be."

"That obvious?" he snarked.

Misty placed her elbows on the table, and after intertwining her hands, rested her chin on them, staring at him intently.

"Would you like me to help you study? You know I don't have many issues with these subjects."

"Why the interest?" he asked, a bit skeptical. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the offer, but won't that take time for you to study yourself?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "Tutoring someone is a good way to review what I've learned. Besides… I'd hate it if my friend loses his spot in the Pokéathlon team and has to go take remedial classes during summer."

They both chuckled at the comment, but after a while, Ash took a more serious demeanor, staring into her eyes. Even if sometimes he'd try to take things with humor, she knew that deep down the Pokéathlon was very important for Ash, and how devastated he'd feel of losing his spot on the team.

But that wasn't going to happen. Not if she could do something about it. And much to her pleasure, he nodded firmly.

"Alright. In that case… shall we meet at my house tomorrow?" Misty proposed.

* * *

_**Waterflower Residence, the following day…**_

Ash had practices with the Pokéathlon team after his regular classes on Saturday, so he'd go out a bit later. Since Misty lived at the other side of town, specifically at the Cerulean District, he had to take a huge detour. The walk itself wasn't that much of a trouble, he was used to do long runs for workout, but it'd be a long way back home later.

It was weird that after that bad start he and Misty had at first, the two became so close as friends. When he was transferred at the beginning of the year, he beat her in the Battle Training class, ending her undefeated streak. She was just as competitive as him, so this didn't sit any well with her, though to be fair, him rubbing his victory in her face didn't help. By contrast, she'd often pick on him whenever he flunked the theoretical subjects' exams, which were far from being his forte.

However, things changed, when she stumbled upon him, defending some first years from a guy who was picking on them. The two sat for a talk later, and he realized that, whenever she wasn't being so uptight about classes, she was actually pretty nice. Of course, that didn't prevent them from competing every once in a while, albeit in a healthier way.

"Well, this is the place," he said, once he arrived to the entrance marked "Waterflower".

The house looked like from a well-off family, two floors and somewhat bigger than his own. There was an intercommunicator, so Ash figured he'd have to push the button and talk. He waited for a bit until he got the answer.

"Yeah? Who is it?" Even with the slight distortion, Ash could recognize the voice instantly.

"Misty, it's me, Ash. Can I come in?"

"Ash? Hold on, I'll open right away," she said before turning the thing off.

Ash waited for a bit. The place was rather quiet, and there were no Pokémon around other than a small pack of Meowth and Persian scavenging in the dump, and some Pidgey chirping and flying above him. At least it was a neighborhood where they could study without any noise to annoy them.

One minute later, he heard the gate opening, but he was a bit distracted looking around when Misty approached him.

"Sorry for the wait. I was preparing some stuff."

"Don't worry, I…" And when he turned around, he suddenly cut himself off, as he glanced at the girl from head to toe.

She'd donned a three-piece suit: a white blouse, black skirt and jacket, and matching stockings and high-heeled shoes. She was also wearing glasses although he knew perfectly she didn't need them, and also carried a retractable pointer in her hands.

"Something wrong?"

"Huh? No, nothing, just… what's with the getup?" he dared to ask once he managed to get over the shock.

"Well, since it's gonna be a study session, I felt I should get into the role," she replied with a smile. "Anyway, time's a wasting, come in."

And just like that, she grabbed him by the wrist, almost pulling him into the house. Despite the initial surprise, he put up no resistance.

'_Get into the role… If I didn't know better, I'd almost think she was a teacher. Though the outfit does look nice on her…'_ he thought.

…

The next three hours were spent doing the itinerary they'd be following. Misty had prepared a large blackboard where she detailed their study program, complete with the hours and days, including the subjects they'd be studying in each, and forced Ash to write it down in his notebook so as to not to forget it. She then erased it and they began their little classes officially.

Today, they'd start with Universal History, and it goes without saying that Ash wasn't happy to listen about events that passed when he hadn't even been born, neither did they sound any interesting. In fact, he'd frequently fall asleep in that class, which the teacher never found any funny, always throwing him a chalk or two in the head to wake him up.

For some reason, hearing it from Misty was _a lot_ less sleep-inducing. He managed to hold out an entire chapter, and even found it entertaining.

"… and thus, the hero Pallet Oak saved the townsfolk from the invaders. His sacrifice was immortalized with a statue that still stands on the district that carries his name. For more details, see the chapter _'Pallet Oak: How a Single Man Can Make a Difference'_."

Ash grabbed the aforementioned tome, which was a little thicker than the _History of Kanto_ they were seeing until now, and he couldn't help but frown once he opened the aforementioned chapter.

"This thing weighs a ton. And why are the letters so small?"

"You have to read it. He who doesn't know the story of his own district's founder should be ashamed," Misty said, folding her arms.

"Bah, I don't see the point. Besides, I seem to get it better when you explain it to me."

"Ash, you can't expect me to read everything to you," Misty said. "The idea is that you learn this stuff, not me, remember? Besides, I've already done my essay about Pallet Oak, reading only the most important chapters."

"Couldn't you at least tell me which ones they are?" he asked, trying to put a supplicant face.

Misty sighed and rolled her eyes, but the puppy-eyed stare made her give in. She marked the chapters and pointed the pages he should read, and after a while, he seemed rather cheery as he did.

A few hours later, a ringtone _***RING, RING, RING! CALLING IN, CALLING IN!* **_went off in Ash's pocket, interrupting his task. Ash stopped reading to pull the phone and answer, and he gulped a little when he saw the ID Caller.

Which Misty quickly took notice of. "Something wrong?"

"It's… my mom," he said as the phone continued to ring. He then scratched the back of his head. "Looks like… I forgot to tell him you were going to help me study."

"You have to be kidding me," Misty folded her arms.

Despite the uncomfortable, Ash quickly pushed the answer button. He nervously took the cellphone to his ear to talk. The sooner he did, the better.

"Hello?"

"Young man, would you please tell me where you are and why you haven't returned home?" his mother, Delia Ketchum, asked. "Have you seen what time it is?"

She didn't sound angry, just unusually sweet and kind. Although Ash knew his mom enough to know that was her way to lecture him, and much more effective than getting angry or yelling.

Ash swallowed, but he relaxed before answering. "I'm studying at a friend's house. She offered to help me study for the extraordinary."

"Studying? Come on, Ash, tell me the truth."

"I'm telling you the truth, Mom," he insisted.

"Ash…" his mother insisted from the other side. He didn't sound as cheery as before, but more serious.

"I'm studying, why don't you–Hey!" Before he could defend himself, Misty had taken the cellphone from his hand and decided to talk for him.

"Hello? Ms. Ketchum? This is Misty Waterflower, I'm a classmate of your son. I'm sorry, I was the one who invited him to study in my house. Ah, I see. Yeah, he can be a bit distracted sometimes, but… No, no, there's nothing you should worry about, we're almost done for today. Yeah, fine. Goodbye."

Next, the redhead tossed the phone back at him, giving him a stern look.

"Ash, you forgot to tell your mom I was helping you study?" she asked.

"I forgot to tell her yesterday, and with the hurry today… ow!" Misty had given him a tap on the head with the pointer.

"Don't you worry your mom like that again. I offered to help you so you wouldn't get into trouble, not so you could get into more," she said with a severe tone.

"Hey, aren't you going overboard with the teacher role?" he protested, and in response she gave him another tap. "Hey!"

"I think that's enough for today," Misty said. "Mark this chapter and finish the reading at home. Next time I'll ask you some questions, and I'll know if you read it, okay?"

"Yeah… professor," he muttered, almost grudgingly.

Even so, Ash could see Misty was smiling at him. As she erased the blackboard, Ash picked up his stuff and put it back into his backpack. He had no idea how, but somehow he managed to retain everything she'd told him. Whatever the redhead was using, it worked.

If they kept up that way, he'd do very well in the extraordinary.

* * *

_**A couple weeks later…**_

The study sessions continued day after day, in the after class hours. Misty didn't slow down in her goal to get Ash in shape for every class he'd have to take in the exam.

Once they finished the history schedule, they went on to math and physics. Just like the boring events of long ago, Ash wasn't exactly good with numbers, formulas and symbols. However, Misty found a very particular method to get him more interested.

"A Pidgeot fires an Air Cutter projectile, with initial velocity of 5 km/h. The projectile has an acceleration rate of 3,5 m/s2, hitting a Fearow at a distance of 18 metros in a straight line. What's the attack's terminal velocity during the impact?"

"Hmm…" Ash began tapping the desk with his pencil, then tapped his own temple as he thought. After a while, he finally deciphered the answer. "I got it, first I need to calculate the time it takes to travel that distance, and then…"

Correcting the error from before, he grabbed the calculator to do the math. Once he was done, he delivered the finished problem for Misty to check it out. She glanced at the paper sheet for a bit, adjusting her glasses at every few lines she checked.

After a while, the redhead smiled. "Well done, it's all correct. Let's do one more." Misty was about to write another problem on the blackboard, until she saw the hour in the wall clock. "Ah, maybe we should take a break to eat something. Today we've made a breakthrough after all."

"Sounds good to me. And I'm starving."

He wasn't kidding; so much studying made him hungry, and his brain worked much better when his stomach was full. Misty went towards the kitchen and came back after a while, carrying a tray full of sandwiches and a couple of glasses of milk.

After taking a bite of the first sandwich, Ash noted Misty had brought something else from the kitchen: a chocolate ice-cream in a crystal cup, and it looked rather delicious.

So much that he kept staring at it, with his mouth half-open.

"Hmm? Oh no, don't even think about it?" Misty said as she protected the cup with her hands. "This one's for me."

"Hey, don't be so mean," he protested. "At least let me take a scoop, won't you?"

"I will, when we're through with the schedule," she replied. "I've got more in the fridge; I'll give you a full one if you solve the rest of the problems."

Ash wanted to speak up again, but once the girl's words sank in, he kept quiet. Once he finished the sandwiches and downed the glass of milk, he immediately began solving the rest of the exercises.

Although it was much harder to focus as he glanced at Misty eating her ice-cream, rather teasingly and clearly delighting herself in it. The girl seemed to taste it slowly to enjoy it more, and there was something in her movements that Ash found quite… enticing.

'_Focus, Ash, focus,'_ he told himself mentally.

He had to end as soon as possible, but also do it right. The incentive of a chocolate ice-cream as a reward didn't sound bad at all, in exchange for killing himself in studying.

…

Surprising as it would sound for some, Ash was able to solve the rest of the problems without any issue, and all on his own. Even in those where he had minor mishaps, he quickly managed to spot and correct them, finishing with half an hour to spare.

And now he was tasting his reward for his efforts. Nothing like a big cup of ice-cream to celebrate his progress.

"Oof, thank you, that was delicious," he said after finishing it, leaving the empty cup aside.

"Glad you enjoyed it," Misty said. "You know, if you get good marks in the extraordinary, I could give you a full gallon as a reward."

"Isn't that for people who get depressed?"

"Normally it is, but in my opinion that's a waste," the redhead replied. "You're making fast progress; to be honest I didn't think we'd get done with Physics today. That just leaves Chemistry and Kanto Geography to end our study program."

"Ahh, we still have to do that? I feel I'm gonna get even more bored."

"You didn't seem so bored when I taught you the other two," Misty pointed, making a gesture with the pointer in her hands.

Ash simply shrugged and rested over his chair with laziness. For a non-physical activity, studying left him really tired, but even he was surprised at how much he'd progressed in such a short time. Maybe it had something to do with him putting his mind into it, although there were still times he tried to laze around or skip work just a little bit.

Misty would always give him a tap with the pointer whenever he did that.

"I guess you must be happy to go back home one hour early," Misty said as she glanced at the clock. "That'll make your mom less worried, won't it?"

"I guess so, though… I don't mind staying around a little more. It's pretty nice here after all. And there's good company."

He said the last part giving the girl a somewhat suggestive look, and she seemed to catch the drift, as she smiled herself. Admittedly, he felt a bit weird about being at a girl's house, even more when her parents were out of town. If he didn't know better, some would probably believe they were engaging in… inappropriate behaviors.

Of course, they weren't doing anything but study, eat together and chat as good friends. And now they were just taking a break.

"Well, since you want to stay, how about we get started right now with the Chemistry lessons? I don't see why postpone it for tomorrow if we can begin today."

And so his little break came to an end. He and his big mouth.

* * *

_**One week later…**_

Misty didn't pull any punches with the following lessons. Seeing Ash's progress, rather than giving him any breathers and letting him rest in his laurels, she pushed him much harder. Of course, he was able to keep up, even if sometimes he did get a bit tired.

That said, the redhead was very pleased with her "student". Even if sometimes he complained, in the end he always did whatever she told him, and finished the assignments. Obviously, the results weren't always perfect on the first try, but considering his academic records, that was quite the advance.

She was confident that he'd do well, but she couldn't get careless. Until the day, came, she'd have to give him everything she had.

And that sometimes implied she had to let Ms. Ketchum that Ash would probably have to stay the night at her house.

"He's a good boy, but I know sometimes he can be a bit of a handful," the woman said when she called. "I hope he won't cause you any trouble."

"Don't worry about that. Nothing that I can't handle," the redhead assured.

Of course, Ash's mother didn't need to know that Misty's parents were on vacation, and since her older sisters had moved away, she had the house for herself. Maybe she would have gotten… wrong ideas about what they were doing.

That night, Misty had gone to the kitchen for one last snack once they were done with the session, and to give Ash his just reward. But much to her surprise, when she came back to the living room, she found him resting on the couch, the Chemistry book covering his face, and his arm and leg hanging in a position suggesting he'd fallen asleep while reading.

The redhead sighed. "Ash… are you really that tired?"

She approached cautiously, as knowing him it wouldn't be strange if he tried to pull a prank on her, like pretending to be asleep to surprise her. She carefully pulled the book off of Ash's face, verifying that, indeed, he was completely immerse in the dream world.

As she glanced at his face, Misty couldn't help but smile. He looked rather adorable in his sleep. In that case, and since they were done for today, better not to wake him up.

"Yeah, you definitely are," she whispered. "But well, I guess you've earned it for today. You've worked really hard in these past weeks."

They could continue in the morning with ease. For now, the best she could do was turn off the lights and put a blanket on him so he wouldn't get cold. If he had a good sleep, he'd perform better in the morning, and that was what mattered the most.

"Goodnight, Ash," she said before pulling down the switch and leaving the room in darkness.

Tomorrow they'd have another great day, even if she thought it was a good moment to give hima little test with everything they'd learned so far.

…

"Hmmm… some elements essential to life: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and…" He shook his head and looked around. "Er… what, did I fall asleep?"

"Oh, morning. Did you have a good sleep last night?"

Misty's voice helped him get fully awake. The girl brought a tray with his breakfast, and she wore a big smile in her face. Leaving the tray on the table, she grabbed a chair and sat in front of him, before grabbing a clipboard with some paper sheets.

"To be honest… yeah, I slept pretty well," Ash said as he grabbed a toast. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"Well, today, we'll review everything we've learned, and then," she showed him one of the sheets on the board, "we'll do a little mock test. The extraordinary will have about fifty questions, so I'll give you half that amount to evaluate your performance so far. Then we'll continue the schedule as planned, okay?"

"You're the teacher here," he said with an amused tone. "Hey… thanks. I really appreciate you're helping me so much with this."

"It's still a bit too soon for that." She smiled even more. "You can thank me later, when you've passed the extraordinary. If you don't, I'll be really disappointed."

Ash chuckled, and once he finished his breakfast, he sat grabbing his pencil and paper to begin the mock exam. It wasn't a bad idea; he could prepare much better if he had a good idea of what awaited him in the real thing.

The first question was easy enough: a distance calculation problem, having a Pidgeot fly from point A to point B, at Mach 1 keeping constant velocity in an interval of time.

'_Mach 1 is about 340,3 m/s, it travels the distance in two hours, which in seconds is… yeah, I got it.'_

Helping himself with the calculator to convert the time units, he quickly wrote down the answer and moved on to the next question.

This time it was about History, about the date of beginning of the "151-Year War". If he recalled correctly, it was somewhere during year 500-something according to the current calendar, but the exact year escaped him. Was it during the 50s or 60s of that time?

'_53… 54… yeah, 58!'_ He quickly wrote down the answer.

Encouraged at how easy the first two questions were, he quickly moved on to the next one. It was so weird, he was rather calm and once he read the questions and thought a bit about them, he knew the answers!

He seldom felt that way in a test, and his usual strategy was to hold the first half of the time breaking his head, and the second half trying frenetically to answer as much as possible. Now he was doing it calmly, he felt less pressured and he could do it better.

However, when he got to the tenth question, he noticed something weird in it. He reread it a couple times, and even rubbed his eyes to make sure they weren't playing any tricks on him.

"What's Misty Waterflower's blood type?" he read out loud, staring at the girl.

She simply snickered, taking a feigned innocence look. Ash quickly realized it was just a joke question she put there for fun, and not actually worth for the test.

After all, what did Misty's blood type have to do with the stuff her was supposed to be studying?

Leaving that question aside, Ash continued the exam. Ignoring the small joke, he still had lot of other questions to answer, and time was still running. He couldn't get distracted now.

…

Two and a half hours later, Ash finally finished the exam. Misty spent quite a while checking his answers, and was pleased to see he'd gotten an 80% score.

"Very good, see what you can do when you put your mind to it," she said. "If you can answer at this rate, you could finish the exam with plenty pf time to spare."

"It wasn't as bad as I thought," Ash admitted. "Although… was it really necessary to put questions about you in it?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "I just felt it'd be nice to put some humor, in case you got tense or something. Although…"

The girl pointed at question number 17. It said "When is Misty Waterflower's birthday?", and surprisingly, the date he wrote down was correct. Coincidence?

"How did you know my birthday was on that date? I don't recall ever telling you."

"Ah, that?" He shrugged too. "That day I saw some of your friends giving you cards and gifts. I just remembered. Had I known before I'd have bought you a gift."

Misty gave him an inquisitive look. It was quite odd that he remembered that date, especially since back then they weren't exactly friends. In fact, back then she was still a bit sore over losing to him.

Even so, something inside her felt really happy that he remembered. Had she known before, they could have ended their hostilities much earlier.

"Okay, I think we're ready for the final stage," Misty said, leaving the mock exam aside. "Three subjects down and one more to go. Ready to start with Geography?"

"You know I am, give me everything you've got." He punched his palm.

* * *

_**Two weeks later…**_

The remaining study sessions turned out as good as Ash could have hoped for. By the time they finished, with only one week remaining before the extraordinary, he just had to review his notes and look back on everything he'd done.

Misty was very pleased with Ash's efforts. She was fully confident that he'd do well in the extraordinary, but even so, she spent the entire morning distracted in class, wondering how Ash was doing.

'_It'll be okay,'_ she told herself as she stared out the window. 'Unless he decided to stay up last night and falls asleep during the exam today, there's no way he's gonna fail."

Staring at the clock on the wall, she saw it was 9:27 am. Ash had begun the exam at 8:00 and it would end at 11:30. For some reason, she felt the clock's hands were ticking faster than usual that day, and she awaited the result very anxiously.

Before she realized, the class was over in a heartbeat.

Finally, when the exit bell rang, the girl picked up her stuff and went for the classroom where Ash was having the extraordinary. She didn't even stop when her friends asked where she was going; she needed to know how things had ended as soon as possible.

And she arrived just in time to see Ash exiting the classroom. As soon as he closed the door, the boy leaned against the wall, clenching his exam against his chest, and sliding down the wall until he sat on the floor, letting out a deep breath. He looked exhausted, as if he'd run a marathon from her neighborhood to his house, and she knew well that such a thing would be a piece of cake for him.

In fact, he looked so tired, he didn't even notice her presence until she cleared her throat, to get his attention.

"Ah… hey, Misty."

"Don't 'hey, Misty' on me, boy," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "Everything alright? How did you do?"

Ash kept his head low. Seemingly he was trying to avoid visual contact with her. Was it just because he was tired?

"No… don't tell me you…"

"I'm sorry, Misty," he apologized. "I know you did all you could to help me, but…"

"No… after all we studied, you can't…"

"Three mere points… and I could have made it to the honor roll," he said, raising the paper sheet so he could see the result.

On the top left corner there was a huge 87% circled in red. According to school rules, you needed at least 90 to make it to the term's honor roll.

Was he disappointed for that? For a student who went from an average of 45-50 in those subjects to 87 in a single month, that was quite a leap. Misty for a moment wanted to strangle him for scaring her like that, making her think he'd flunked out.

"You're a… you… aww, come here, you dolt!" She jumped to his neck to catch him in a headlock. The outburst caught him off-guard, but in just a few seconds the two were dancing and twirling each other in celebration.

At least until the teacher came out of the classroom. He was an older man with a three-piece, grayish-blue suit, with a tie, balding and a walrus-like moustache, and with thick, opaque glasses framing his eyes.

"Hey!" he called out to them, making them stop their little victory dance. "If you want to celebrate, do it out of school grounds, not in the hallways. And Mr. Ketchum, I advise you to put a little more effort in your classes for the next term. I'm surprised you could increase your grades in such a short amount of time, but this proves you can."

"Sorry, professor," Ash said, bowing respectfully.

The teacher left, and as soon as he did, Ash let out a wince that Misty caught on. She couldn't blame him: that old man was one of the grumpiest veterans in the school, and he'd always have it with the most troublesome students.

"Was it tough?" the redhead asked.

"A little bit," the black-haired boy replied. "Maybe if the nerves had gotten the best of me with that old duff glaring at me all the time, and alone in that classroom, I could have gotten the 90 points."

"Well, at least now it's over," Misty said. "Be happy, you made it through the extraordinary and with good grades, you deserve to celebrate!"

"Yeah, I guess so." He smiled at her. "And since you mention it, that reminds me of something."

Ash pulled out something of his pants' pocket. Next, he waved a hand in front of Misty's face so she could see it clearly. And the girl was in for a big surprise.

"Those are… movie tickets?" Misty asked, and seeing them up close realized something else. "The new remake of _The Yamask of the Opera_? I didn't know you liked that kind of movies."

"Hehe, neither did I," he replied, shrugging. "To be honest, the other day I asked some of your friends if they knew what kind of movie you'd like to watch, so…"

"Ash… are you asking me out for a movie?" she inquired with a suggestive tone.

"If… you want to." He blushed slightly.

Misty didn't need to be told anything else. With a big smile, she grabbed one of the tickets and gave him a peck on the cheek, before walking away a few steps.

"I like to go one hour early before the movie starts. I'll be waiting for you, don't be late," she concluded with a wink.

"Sure."

And without further words, the redhead walked away across the hallway. As soon as she was out of sight and after making sure nobody was watching, she pumped her fist in victory.

"He asked me out… I can't believe it, he beat me to ask him out on a date."

Indeed, she was planning on asking him out somewhere to celebrate once he passed. Maybe she should convince him to have more study sessions together next year.

Though she was planning on having some words with her friends later. Who told them she wanted to watch that remake in particular? Not that it was bad, but… it was far from her first choice, especially since _Lorelei: The Ice Trail _was still in the box office.

'_Next time, I'd better tell him to let me choose the movie.'_

**FIN.**

* * *

**Author's notes:**

Day 2, and the theme was "High School AU". I had a few ideas floating around, but it helped me a lot rewatching Slam Dunk (what a classic) in the episode where the Shohoku starters are in danger of losing the nationals for flunking out too many classes. Though the challenge was in not removing completely the elements of the Pokémon World, and then I thought about using the Pokéathlon as a sports discipline of sorts. What do you think, did it work?

I also took some ideas from the dating sim Love Plus, which as a feature has that, when exams are approaching, you can go study at the girl's house. That's where I took the idea from Misty sneaking some personal questions in Ash's mock test, and dress up as a hot teacher, well, when you answer correctly, the girl rewards you wearing some fanservice outfits, things like maid costumes or bikinis. However, as I've exploited a little too much that resource, I decided to go for a milder one and more fitting for the study environment, and I felt a teacher getup would suit her (the actual idea came from Erina in Shokugeki no Soma, when she dresses up the part to tutor the Polaris students so they can pass their exams to advance to the next year).

So there, with that, Day 2 is done. I'd like to thank **Percyfan1998** for the review in Day 1, along with those who faved the story (barring one certain subject, who I can't understand why still keeps faving or following my stories if he blocked me and supposedly hates me). See ya tomorrow for the next shot!


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